It seems as though someone finally told Wendy Davis that running on a radical pro-abortion platform is not going to win her the governor's mansion. In an interview published today in the Dallas Morning News, Davis came out in favor of a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, provided that the law "adequately deferred to a woman and her doctor."
Wait, what?
Davis, a Fort Worth senator and the likely Democratic nominee for governor, told The Dallas Morning News’ editorial board that less than one-half of 1 percent of Texas abortions occur after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Most of those were in cases where fetal abnormalities were evident or there were grave risks to the health of the woman.
“I would line up with most people in Texas who would prefer that that’s not something that happens outside of those two arenas,” Davis said.
But the Democrat said the state’s new abortion law didn’t give priority to women in those circumstances. The law allows for exceptions for fetal abnormalities and a threat to the woman’s life, but Davis said those didn’t go far enough.
“My concern, even in the way the 20-week ban was written in this particular bill, was that it didn’t give enough deference between a woman and her doctor making this difficult decision, and instead tried to legislatively define what it was,” Davis said.
To recap: House Bill 2, the abortion restrictions law passed in Texas, required abortions to be performed in an ambulatory surgical center, required a doctor performing an abortion to have admitting privileges in a nearby hospital, required that chemical abortions be administered by doctors, and banned abortions after 20 weeks gestation, with exceptions for fetal abnormality and for the health of the mother.
The law was widely supported by both men and women in Texas. Davis was a political nobody in Texas who was barely reelected to her seat in the state senate. Her 12-hour filibuster against the bill effectively turned her into a national political celebrity.
Since Davis announced her bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, she has gone to great lengths to reinvent her image.
Davis has also come under controversy recently about embellishing certain aspects of her past.
This is the latest pathetic attempt by Davis to reconfigure herself into something more palatable by the average Texan voter, and it is probably not going to work. The people of Texas deserve a candidate and a governor who can remain consistent on an issue for longer than six months — and that certainly is not looking like Wendy Davis.